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and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. so...what do men do when a number's too low? turn it up! [ male announcer ] in a clinical study, over 80% of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. get the blood tests. change your number. turn it up. androgel 1.62%. good morning. we're going to begin with breaking news from south africa where a judge has just granted bail to olympic runner oscar pistorius who is charged with murdering his girlfriend reeva steenkamp on valentine's day. this is a live picture now of the courthouse in pretoria. we may see oscar pistorius walk out at any moment so we're keeping our eye on it. we will have a live report from south africa in just a few minutes. in the meantime, the big new question out of washington is about the federal workers and the government agencies. they're on edge, bracing for

furloughs or layoffs because they just don't know if the sequester is coming. there is just a week left to get a deal and the only progress to report, a phone call. the president reached out to speaker john boehner and to senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and he talked about the gop sequester strategy with the reverend al sharpton. >> my sense is that their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations, and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts that could slow down our recovery over closing tax loopholes and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point. >> with no deal and bleak prospects the government is scrambling to look for places to cut $85 billion. now, we do know $46 billion

comes from the pentagon. "the baltimore sun" headlines read big pay cut contemplated for civilian defense workers. "the washington post", u.s. schools brace for federal funding cuts. the "new york times" meantime highlights federal spending cuts threaten delays in air travel. let me bring in loren fox politics reporter for "u.s. news and world report" and "usa today" washington bureau chief susan paige. good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> the president clearly thinks he has the upper hand. your poll yesterday suggested he does but is he in danger of overplaying it? >> well, it's always possible. we'll see what -- how much people really feel the impact if the sequester cuts go into effect as we think they probably will next week. but what we found in the new "usa today"/pew research poll is that about half of americans say it is going to be the fault of congressional republicans if they can't reach a deal. just 31% said they'd blame the president. that's pretty good standing for the president going into yet another one of these fiscal

cliff hangers. >> they're talking about very serious cuts, one that could have by some accounts dire consequences especially for federal workers, and it somewhat devolved when john boehner's spokesman started tweeting during jay carney's press conference. i think they went back and forth six or eight times. carney tweeted this. "usa today"/pew poll says americans support potus' balanced approach to deficit reduction 76-19% over gop plan. hash tag, gop out of touch? and then he wrote back the american people support approach so much. why hasn't the dem-run senate even passed it? loren, how much of this impasse is driven by ideology? how much of it is that these two sides just don't really like each other? >> i think this exemplifies how divided the parties really have been here. you know, republicans are not willing to budge when it comes to things like taxes.

they don't want to see more revenue because they think the president just wants to spend it. and democrats say we need a balanced approach. as the public polling has shown, that's what americans support. so i think it's just exemplifies how partisan washington is getting on this issue and both sides are digging in their heels here. >> gene robinson's piece today is no winners in this game. let me read to you part of what he wrote. it's hard to believe but this is the way the richest and most powerful nation on earth runs its affairs these days, lurching from artificial crisis to artificial crisis amid threats of self-inflicted harm. the enemy, truly, is us. i mean, do these key players really think, susan, this isn't going to turn out badly for a lot of people from defense and other government workers to kids in head start? >> well, yes. i think they understand that but, you know, you asked if this was really an ideological divide. in a lot of ways it is. congressional republicans have as their base supporters voters

who are very serious about reducing the deficit who think a little pain would be fine in the goal of cutting the deficit. >> i guess it depends on what your view of a little pain is don't you think? >> that's true. one thing that i think is keeping the two sides from taking this as seriously as they might is that this is not like the debt ceiling which was going to be an immediate catastrophe. it's not like what's going to happen at the end of the month on the continuing resolution that funds the government, which could cause a government shutdown. this is going to be something that comes on in a slow way and then starts to get more and more serious. so that's i think led both sides to think they in fact have a little time after march 1st to try to work out a deal and for republicans it makes a lot of political sense to let the sequester cuts go into effect. >> i want to bring in congresswoman debby wassermann schultz chair of the dnc. always good to see you, congresswoman. good morning. >> you, too, chris. thank you. good morning. >> what's your view of this? do you think that you have a little time to sort of work things through? >> well, let's look at it this

way. if you had a big stick of di dynamite with a really long fuse you know what is going to happen when the fuse runs out. would you light it? the impact of these cuts are going to have a real effect on real people. i mean, just let's take for example air travel. that's already complicated enough for people who aren't regular travelers. it's pretty complicated for regular travelers, too. furloughing tsa agents, which is very likely to happen, almost for sure, is going to make air travel a logistical nightmare. the layoff or furloughs of food inspectors, i mean, we already are concerned when there is a salmonella outbreak. do we want to make those more likely? i mean, that is the fire that republicans are playing with. all in the name of protecting the wealthiest americans' tax loopholes like making sure that tax breaks for corporate jets

stay in place. i mean, i just don't understand their priorities. i don't think -- clearly, most americans don't either. >> let me read to you a part of what peggy noonan wrote today. quote, the president and his people overestimate his position in this 50/50 country. the president looks strong now, but governing by freakout has too many costs. again, he is overplaying his hand. your reaction to that? >> you know, i'm sorry. i just think that kicking 70,000 kids off of head start is a really huge concern. you know -- >> their point would be with all due respect is that if it doesn't happen it's all their fault. and their suggestion is, for example, the other point of critique in peggy noonan's column is that what passes for news these days is the president picks up the phone. that the democrats haven't really wanted to reach out. >> look a, the president -- thas simply not true. we've had repeated, numerous

conversations. if the republicans were actually interested in working on a compromise wouldn't we be in washington? why are we in recess? why am i coming to you from florida instead of washington working out a compromise? it's pretty hard to reach a deal if you're actually not near each other or in the same room. the republicans, you know, the power point presentation that came out that john boehner made to his caucus the other day makes it clear that the republicans consider the sequester leverage. they consider a looming government shutdown three weeks later leverage so they can get the severe, unacceptable spending cuts that they want and protect the tax breaks that they've been trying to protect for the wealthiest americans. what happened to the campaign rhetoric, the campaign talk from mitt romney and republican leaders that said they want to close tax loopholes that make everybody pay their fair share. that is out the window now because what they really want is protect the loopholes to the wealthiest americans and take

the cuts to deficit reduction. americans have clearly indicated they want a balanced approach. they want wealthy americans to pay their fair share and generate some revenue and they want responsible spending cuts. that's what democrats want and we need to be in washington working together to avoid huge lines at airports, to avoid tens of thousands of kids getting kicked off head start, to avoid layoffs of food inspectors, and the impact on real people. we should not light the fuse no matter how long it is. >> and i guess the other question is, if the sequester, you know, battle continues to go on, what it means for other things that need to get done. for example, today the president's grass roots group is planning a national day of action with a protest outside of nra offices and i guess about a hundred other smaller events and rallies. i mean, for example, would work on gun legislation be delayed because of this sequester? >> well, everything is -- everything would be delayed. you'll have massive cuts to education, health care research,

research grants that won't get funded. i mean, the decisions that we make now, letting the sequester kick in, have short-term effects that affect people's daily lives, but they also have significant long-term effects. if a university isn't able to hire a researcher or -- because the grant doesn't come through -- that researcher never does ground breaking work that could save thousands of lives later on down the road. i mean, this is dramatically irresponsible. it's irresponsible for our economy and the impact on it. it's irresponsible to, in terms of the impact it would leave on the middle class and working families. the only ones who get protected are the wealthiest, most fortunate americans. but that appears to be the republicans' goal. and it's just baffling. how could they possibly continue to only care about people who are already doing really well who are the only ones that would be shielded from the impact of sequester cuts? >> congresswoman debbie

wassermann schultz. >> it's incomprehensible. >> thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you. >> of course, when we're talking about the gun control issue, the vice president really has been the point man. here's what he had to say yesterday. >> if you're concerned about your political survival, you should be concerned about the survival of our children. and guess what? i believe the price to be paid politically to those who refuse to act, who refuse to step forward --. >> it sounds great, loren, but is the reality of this just politics? >> you know, before you even look at the house of representatives, which is dominated by republicans right now, you have to look over at the senate. and there are a lot of vulnerable democrats who are up for re-election in 2014. i'm thinking of mark bagich of alaska, max baux of montana. when you're coming up a re-election in a red state it's just a tricky thing to sell to

congressional democrats in those tight races right now. >> there's also a lot of lobbying going on right now. you have this national day of action trying to tap into the obama grass roots organization and then on the other side, susan, you have the nra and they're apparently close to making a full list of recommendations for school safety, although they already have told "usa today" about some best practices including having armed officers in schools. is this a pr war? how much of it is a pr war? if so, who's winning? >> you know, i've been generally skeptical about the prospects on gun control, because it's been so many years since democrats were willing to really tackle this. but i've been surprised by how persistent the white house has been on this issue, including joe biden, who as you say is taking a leadership role. and i wonder if the prospects aren't a little better for universal background checks and maybe even something beyond that, although loren makes a great point that you need to get the backing of some of these democratic senators who are going to be up for re-election in states where gun rights are

very popular. but i just think -- i think it's possible that one impact of that terrible shooting in newtown, connecticut may be to just change this issue a little bit. >> susan paige, loren fox, thanks to both of you and have a great weekend. >> thank you. >> you as well. >> we want to touch back on the breaking developments from south africa where olympic star oscar pistorius has been granted bail pending his murder trial. nbc's michelle kusinski is live in pretoria with the latest. michelle, good morning. >> reporter: hi, chris. oscar pistorius sobbed, his body shaking as this ruling was read. you could say that in many ways this was expected but this judge kept everyone guessing. his ruling lasted two hours. he criticized the prosecution saying a lot of the evidence they presented was flawed but then saying that didn't mean their case was not strong. next he hit pistorius, saying he had problems with his account of what happened that morning, saying if pistorius felt so vulnerable that he needed to grab his gun and start shooting

into a bathroom into which he did not know who was there, then why did he rush into danger when he had so many opportunities available to him? the judge ultimately ruled, though, that pistorius was not a flight risk, not a danger to the public, and he will be released on bail tonight. the judge also upped that bail to the equivalent of $112,000 u.s. and there are a lot of conditions. pistorius needs to surrender his passports, his firearms, no guns or alcohol. he can't go back to the scene of the alleged crime, which is his home. he needs permission to leave his town and will have to check in with police twice a week, chris. >> michelle kosinski live from south africa, thank you very much for that update. we'll be right back. ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours

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we're keeping a close watch on this live picture of the scene outside a courthouse in

pretoria, south africa. it was inside a short time ago that a judge granted bail to olympic runner oscar pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend on valentine's day, so we will let you know when we see oscar pistorius. in the meantime, i think everybody's got a story about an expensive doctor's visit or hospital bill, but "time" magazine's new cover story "bitter pill, why amedical bill are killing us" breaks down the numbers. what they found is truly shocking. let me just give you one example. a patient was charged $199.50 for a troponin test. she is a year away from medicare. if she was a year older the same bill would have been $13.94. the prices are set by a computer called a charge master, and most hospital officials couldn't even really explain what it is other than that's how they've always done it. i want to bring in "time's" senior editor jeffrey klugger. fantastic piece.

thank you. >> thank you. >> there were so many unbelievable examples. let me start with steven h. he had out patient back surgery. total bill $86,951 out patient but just a few examples. he was charged three bucks for the ruler that marked the incision, $31 for the strap that held him on the table. $32 for a blanket and just the sort of like basic medical supplies came to almost $8,000. how common is this? >> it is exceedingly common and we have horror stories throughout the entire piece. there are stories of $18 per test for a diabetes blood sugar test. the little slip of paper which costs 55 cents apiece if you buy them on amazon. there $108 for a tube of vasotracin the antibiotic ointment i buy for $4 in the drug store when one of my children gets a cut. these are all as you say part of the charge master, this sort of

double secret magic code book that hospitals use that no one really has terribly much access to beyond the hospital and nobody can quite parce when they do see these numbers on their bills. >> and it's one thing to take a 50 cent ruler and charge $3 for it. but here's another example. a patient charged $49,237 for something called a medtronic simulator a device the hospital could buy for $19,000. a 150% profit margin. what is a patient to do? >> one of the problems is that even when you have insurance, and insurance will negotiate these things out, people will often see these shocking bills with, you know, a thousand dollars for an aspirin. not quite that but close and then these bills after a series of negotiations you'll see them coming down and coming down and coming down. the problem is if i'm charging you a thousand dollars for a pair of shoe laces and your

insurance company negotiates it down to $500, that's only a theoretical improvement. so we're still beginning with fanciful numbers that never get down really to what these things cost. >> there is a lot in this piece. one of the great lines i thought was, quote, we may be shocked at the $60 billion price tag for cleaning up after hurricane sandy. we spent that much last week on health care. does the president's health care law seem to help this or address this? >> it does seem to help this and address it. it implements some of the things steven brill in this story recommends. evidence-based testing for the kinds of treatments that work and don't work. bundling instead of charging bit by bit by bit for the pen and the blanket for the surgery. instead, bundling the care. and, also, we need to stop incentivizing the over use of tests like ct scans. ct scans can be just a profit

center for a hospital. if you spend $250,000 for the unit, in one year it's paid for itself. every test you ask for after that is pure profit. now, they're motivated by profit and also they're motivated by the idea of covering themselves against possible malpractice suits. so tort reform, whether folks on the left would like to hear that or not, tort reform has to be a part of this. >> it's an amazing article. i recommend this to people. jeffrey kluger thanks for coming in. >> thanks for having me. the winter storm that dumped as much as two feet of snow in the midwest is moving toward the ohio valley today. parts of the northeast could see even more snow for a third straight weekend. we will have a live report coming up. plus, we're keeping our eye on what's happening in a courthouse outside a courthouse actually in pretoria, south africa where a judge granted bail to oscar pistorius. we'll let you know when we see him come out. stay with us.

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we're continuing to watch this scene outside a courthouse in pretoria, south africa. we saw so much emotion from oscar pistorius when it was announced he would be granted bail, so a lot of folks waiting for him to come out along with members of the media. we will let you know when we see him. of course, he's charged with shooting his girlfriend reeva steenkamp on valentine's day. to politics now and senate majority leader harry reid is staying put. the nevada democrat says he will run for a sixth senate term in 2016 when he'll be 76 years old. he won a tough re-election battle against sharron angle in 2010. rand paul is putting his money where his mouth is. the fiscal conservative is returning about 17% of his senate office budget to the u.s. treasury. that amounts to $600,000. >> it's time to allow marriage for gay and lesbian couples. >> couples are committed, they

ought to have i think the same sort of rights that everyone has. >> former first lady laura bush will no longer be seen in that ad supporting marriage equality. the group behind this spot has agreed to remove her from it. mrs. bush's spokeswoman says the former first lady did not approve the use of the 2010 interview that is featured in the ad. at the same time former republican presidential candidate jon huntsman says he supports same sex marriage. the former utah governor made the announcement in an op-ed in the american conservative. and the grandson of former president jimmy carter is reportedly getting thanks from president obama. james carter iv reportedly helped expose the tape of mitt romney's infamous 47% comment ahead of the november election. president carter says that president obama shook his grandson's hand and thanked him for his support. no official comment from the white house. if you read only one thing this morning, now on the eve of the oscars my thanks to "vanity fair" for a very fun series on

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opponents of chuck hagel aren't giving up even though he appears to not have the votes to become the next secretary of defense. alabama's richard shelby a top republican is breaking ranks and says he'll vote to end the filibuster and will then vote for hagel's nomination. in a less than ringing endorsement shelby says he is probably as good as we're going to get. but 15 other republicans including marco rubio and ted cruz are continuing the fight. they sent a letter to president obama urging him to withdraw hagel's nomination. the white house says that will not happen. >> just to be clear he won't be withdrawn. >> absolutely not. if any suggestion to the

otherwise to the contrary might have been found in the minutes of the meetings of the friends of hamas. yeah. >> white house secretary jay carney making light of a discredited report that claimed hagel received speaking fees from a group called friends of hamas, a group that doesn't exist. let me bring in a republican strategist chip saltsman and democratic strategist morris reed. good morning, guys. >> good morning. >> morris, texas republican ted cruz is among 15 senators asking the president to dump chuck hagel. part of what he said in his statement, in the last 50 years no other secretary of defense has been confirmed with more than three members voting against him and in the entire history of the position no one has been confirmed with more than 11 no votes. will chuck hagel be damaged as defense secretary if there are 15 or more no votes? >> absolutely not. i appreciate the history lesson that the senator has given us but he should also take and find out what is going on in the senate. it would be more helpful for him

to work on fixing the senate than working on the selection of the president of the united states. people need to understand, you serve at the pleasure of the president. so all of this uproar about chuck hagel and what he said and what he hasn't said does not matter. he works for president barack obama who is very clear on his policy as it relates to israel. >> chip, senator richard shelby joined ted cochran and mike johans in supporting hagel's nomination. we already new about susan collins and lisa murkowski expected to go along and vote to end the filibuster next week. so why keep fighting? i mean, the sequester, immigration, guns, you would think that they would be busy. >> well, they are busy. this is one of their jobs. and to confirm cabinet nominees. look, i think what we know is that hagel will be confirmed. i think what we all know there are a lot of republican senators that is probably not their choice for secretary of defense but that's not their choosing. it's the president's choosing. i think there's enough republican senators that give, think the president should have

leeway when it comes to choosing his own cabinet. i think they used this opportunity to talk about some issues that were important to them and then certainly senator hagel did not help himself in his own hearing and then some of these guys tried to capitalize on that. he's going to be confirmed next week. >> it is not their job to be obstructionist. it's their job to be checks and balances. >> it's a republican president we've seen democratic senators do this ime and time again. >> you have never seen the amount of fill busters the republicans have pulled off in the history of the united states senate. it is obstructive. >> democrats are doing the same thing. they're saying these are issues that are important. these are issues that are important. the senate has done its job. he's going to be taken care of. he's going to be voted on and he'll be secretary of defense. isn't that what you want? >> taking on the if is kl cliff, the sequester are important things. >> let me ask you about another example. in addition to chuck hagel republicans have been putting treasury secretary nominee jack lui through some paces.

the white house is countering and says he has answered 440 written questions more than every treasury secretary combined since 1995. now, is that fair, chip? >> i think it is fair. i mean, look. i think the senate is doing its job. it is supposed to 'vette these candidates for cabinet positions. advise and consent. >> more questions than every treasury secretary combined since 1995? >> i you can probably say that about the cabinet members obama had did more work than the bush cabinet members. you could say the bush members did a lot more work than with clinton. there are more rules, more regulations, more paperwork. this is a very cumbersome project that most people can't afford and can't deal with. i think it would be a lot easier to stop all this nonsense and confirm them but these are the rules of the land, the laws of the land, and the senate is doing exactly what the senate supposed to do. >> morris, could this fierce opposition -- >> that is absolutely ridiculous. >> morris? >> it is absurd to think that your party is doing their job. you guys are doing nothing but being obstructive.

if you would put a plan forth you might have won. you lost seats in the house. you lost seats in the senate. you lost the presidency. please. understand you're in the opposition. you're never going to get in a majority if you don't put anything forward. >> morris, if you look at the constitution what does it say? the senate shall give advice and consent on cabinet nominees and that is exactly what they're doing. >> thanks to both of you. >> thanks, chris. after record-setting snowfall bombarding parts of the midwest the major snowstorm is now making its way to chicago and the great lakes region. the weather channel's chris warren is in the windy city. how is it looking, chris? >> well, chris, you know what? we did get a quick hit of snow here in chicago. most areas picking up about 2 to 3 inches of snow, about 5 inches in the one spot in northern illinois. this after yesterday's massive storm with the second all-time snowiest day in wichita. that storm did weaken considerably by the time it got here. now part of the system on the south end is going to redevelop

off the east coast and bring a shot of snow once again for the third weekend in a row to parts of new england and then, chris, for next week, early next week, another storm coming out of the west will bring more snow to some of the hardest hit areas from yesterday. >> the weather channel's chris warren in chicago. thanks for that update. and checking the news feed this morning --. a boost for immigration reform from big labor and big business. the afl-cio and chamber of commerce have struck an agreement on the need for a guest worker program as well as a new federal bureau to study labor shortages and a better way to give american workers first crack at available jobs. in las vegas police still looking for at least one gunman after three people were killed yesterday in a shooting and fiery explosion on the vegas strip. police are combing through mounds of surveillance camera footage which they hope caught the shooting and the deadly traffic accident that followed. there is a new cdc study

out. it shows this year's flu shot is doing a terrible job protecting seniors. often most vulnerable to the flu. for people 65 and older it could only provide protection against the dangerous a strain, about 9% of the time. overall, though, getting the shot makes it 56% less likely you'll get the flu. and here is a headline you don't hear every day. massive mutants goldfish in lake tahoe. scientists think the giant goldfish are the result of people releasing their household fish and now they're worried the widespread breeding could raise algae levels and threaten the famously pristine california lake. coming up on this weekend the academy awards. we flash back to one of the most exciting ragz to riches stories to hit the red carpet. the payroll tax and higher gas prices are taking a big chunk out of spending. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. "the wall street journal" reports that worried companies

are scrambling to meet changing demand. >> yeah. you're absolutely right, chris. lots of retailers in fact are really trying to adjust to this brave new world if you like. we've got consumers like us. we've all got smaller pay checks right? the 2% payroll tax hike. i think hurts a household with $65,000 in annual income about $1,300 this year. so that's real money. we've got gasoline prices which have jumped nearly 50 cents a gallon in the past month alone. so you've got companies like walmart stocking more of its shelves with cheaper products and smaller sized packages of everything from toilet paper to snacks to diapers you name it, daily necessities. also burger king is cutting its whopper junior sandwich to $1.29 from about $2 and focusing its ads on its value menu items rather than higher priced salads or smoothies and also kraft and meat supplier tyson foods introducing more lower priced products to help restaurants and supermarkets adapt to the consumer spending which as we've

seen already in some of the data that's coming out is taking a downshift already. >> well, some companies are adjusting to the new reality of american wineries are i guess popping the cork of the champagne. >> chocolate and wine when things are bad make it feel a whole lot better. we've got new figures from the wine institute showing that wine exports set a record high of over $1.4 billion in revenue last year. and 90% of those exports came from california, you know, places like the napa valley, very nice. the european union remains the top market for california wines. that accounts for about 34% of all sales. and exports to some sort of growing markets emerging markets like china, south korea, and vietnam are also showing strong growth as well. they are really catching on and enjoying american wines. chris? >> all right. cnbc's mandy drury, thanks very much. >> thank you. tax day is less than two months away. here is how we plan to spend our

refund. this is according to a recent survey. 15% say they'll invest it. another 15% say fun times. 28% say they need it for necessities. 44% will use it to pay off debt. and almost half, 47%, say they'll put it in the bank. great, everybody made it. we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office

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reporters. we had been watching the outside of the courthouse after a judge in pretoria, south africa granted bail to the olympic runner who is charged with killing his girlfriend. >> we know oscar's version of what happened that tragic night, and we know that it is the truth. >> again, the headline, olympic runner oscar pistorius granted bail. seven days and counting until massive and painful across-the-board budget cuts occur if no deal is reached. joining me republican congressman tom cole of oklahoma. good to have you back on the program. good morning. >> chris, great to be with you. >> a little earlier in the hour i talked to congresswoman and dnc chair debbie wassermann schultz about this. here's what she said. >> leverage. they consider a looming

government shutdown three weeks later leverage so they can get the severe, unacceptable spending cuts that they want and protect the tax breaks they've been trying to protect for the wealthiest americans. >> is that what's going on here, congressman? >> of course not. we're finally trying to get serious about actually dealing with trillion dollar budget deficits. we've acted twice in may and december to try and redistribute the cuts away from a lot of the affected areas particularly the military and first responders. the senate never picked those bills up. the president has never actually put a proposal on the table. he's been engaged in a theatrical political style campaign, finally calls the speaker and the republican leaders in the senate yesterday, first time he talked to either of them in six weeks. sound to me like he is much more interested in scoring political points than actually solving the problem. >> it does seem your side is intractable though. in spift the headlines we're seeing out there we talked about this earlier as well. federal workers worried about how they're going to pay their

bills. agencies like fbi, border patrol would lose a thousand agents. more than 31,000 teachers could be laid off. air travelers could face lengthy delays in security lines and on the tarmac with nearly 47,000 faa employees facing furlough. these are just a few of the examples. how do you -- >> chris, i am very aware of it. we're anything but intractable. frankly we're the only ones that have actually passed a solution. we have offered repeatedly to sit down with the president. remember, he's talked a lot about a balanced approach. he just got six weeks ago revenue with no spending cuts and that was written into law, fair enough. now it should be spending cuts with no revenue. that's the real balance. instead he wants his cake and to eat it, too. again, we acted months ago, acted twice last year. the president actually suggested sequester in the first place. has never put a proposal on the table. you know, to us it looks much more like politics on his part than a serious effort to arrive at an agreement.

>> the american people seem tongue the preside to think the president is doing his job better than you are. the new poll shows 49% of americans would blame congressional republicans for not reaching a deal while 31% would blame president obama. is that an indication you might want to reconsider both your position and your tactics? >> well, i am certainly willing to reconsider anything in terms of where the cuts come from. i think our side has consistently shown we're willing to do that. the president is the one that is intractable here. he has to have another tax increase within six weeks of the last tax increase. and what he's doing may be effective in terms of scoring political points but as somebody who by the way worked with him on the fiscal cliff, works with him on violence against women, worked with him on sandy relief, i'm just telling you that this is, you know, an absolutely terrible miscalculation. it is going to be legislatively ineffective and will backfire. if he would sit down and bargain in good faith, accept these

spending cuts were written into law, they were his idea, he advocated for them, signed the bill, and accept some responsibility, we could make some progress. but again, so far i think this is all politics out of the white house. it's not any sort of effort to arrive at a solution. >> you mentioned, congressman, let me ask you while we have time, you mentioned the violence against women act and it's been a week since the bipartisan senate majority reauthorized it after it died in the last congress although it is still unclear what might happen in the house with this legislation. there are reports house republicans will unveil their own version as early as next week. what can you tell me about that and how do you get your republican colleagues onboard? >> well, we've been working awfully hard on that. you know, one of the main sticking points is empowering tribal courts on indian land have jurisdiction over nontribal members, something that i support. and representative issa and i actually have a bill that takes care of that and i think it would be terrific if that wrt compromise language in the

republican based text. i don't know if it is. i would hope we get an opportunity to offer that as the amendment. we've made a lot of progress in this area. i particularly want to congratulate and thank the majority leader eric cantor who's worked with us on this but we're not there yet. and there's still negotiations, discussions going on. but i'm hopeful we can get it and get it done and, you know, pass this really important piece of legislation. >> is it likely it's going to happen? >> you know, i think the odds are better than it will than it won't. again, if we can solve the tribal problem i'll certainly be supportive. this is one the great classes of women that are subject to sexual assault, the worst statistics in the country. we need to give tribes the jurisdictional and policing tools that they require to deal with this problem on their own land. we do across the rest of the country. we ought to do it on indian reservations as well. there is an easy fix here in my view. some people have concerns about it. i'm always happy to discuss them. but the end of the day we fix that problem i think we've got a bill.

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he. we're waiting to see if major political movies score big at the oscars and in honor of sunday's awards this week's flashback friday is about one of the great oscar stories i've covered not too long ago actually. you probably remember "slum dog millionaire. the eight oscar statues for "slum dog millionaire" are as improbable as the winning streak at the center of the movie. >> absolutely right! >> slum dog tells the story of an 18-year-old orphan from mumbai's slums who goes from ghetto to glory on a popular indian game show. a rags to riches tale come true.

the child stars not professional actors were plucked from the slums where they still live and only flown to the oscars at the last minute. >> we were worried it might overwhelm them but it was so extraordinary for them. >> a little bitty one. >> their unbridled excitement a highlight of the night. >> it's unbelievable. it hasn't sunk in. we're on the red carpet. wow. >> it's unbelievable. we never came to the oscars. >> to understand just how unbelievable the story is you have to go back to "slum dog's" initial screening here in burbank to movie executives. it reportedly got an icy reception bounce friday one studio to another and initially opened in just ten theaters. nearly $100 million in ticket sales later "slum dog's" success is a dramatic sign of the globalization of hollywood. the oscars were hosted by aussie hugh jackman. britain's kate winslet won best actress. spain's penelope cruz best supporting actress. but the night belonged to "slum dog." >> i don't think it is a

coincidence that a hopeful movie like "slum dog millionaire" is the movie that wins best picture at the oscars this year. >> you can watch each and every flashback friday on our website, jansing.msnbc.com. you can also read more of my thoughts about "slum dog millionaire" and my time living in los angeles. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and company." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts who once lived in los angeles is up next. >> i did. i love these flashback fridays. like flashback hair-do friday. we can see what chris's hair looked like. >> it needed a cut. >> no. it looked good. it looks good. you always look good. chris, thanks so much. >> thanks. the agenda next hour sequester freakout. military, schools, airports, hospitals bracing for deep cuts if no deal is reached. who is going to be blamed first and what is the impact on you and your family? we'll talk with kentucky congressman john yarmuth with the deadline just a week away. then the blade runner sobs in open court as the judge grants him bail after a dramatic two-hour court hearing. for you the very latest from south africa on the double

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